Speaking before last night’s World Series Game 4 at Rangers Ballpark, baseball’s commissioner said going from the current eight teams to 10 will be examined harder than it has been.

“We have to take a longer look at it,” Selig told reporters.

The issue will be discussed at the owners meetings in mid-November in Orlando and will be a big part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement following next season.

The first year the wild card was used was 1995, the year after the World Series was canceled due to labor strife between owners and players

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This is the 44th time a team has led the World Series 3-1. Thirty-eight teams with the lead have won the Series.

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Rangers reliever Alexi Ogando
left the game in the sixth inning with a strained left oblique muscle, and Ron Washington
said he will be replaced on the roster for tonight’s Game 5.

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Giants shortstop Edgar Renteria
went 3-for-4 and is 6-for-14 (.429) in four games. He is a career .333 (20-for-60) hitter in the World Series.

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Last night’s Game 4 Giants rookie battery of Madison Bumgarner
and Buster Posey
was the first time since 1947 that neophytes were behind the plate and on the mound for a World Series game.

The last time a rookie battery was used it belonged to the Yankees with Spec Shea
pitching to Yogi Berra
against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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The Giants don’t compare to the party animals mid-’80s Mets or the early-’90s Phillies but the Giants aren’t the corporate stiffs a lot of professional teams have evolved into.

They aren’t shy about hanging out in San Francisco restaurants, don’t believe shaving is a daily activity and their best pitcher, Tim Lincecum
, is the subject of a “Let Timmy Smoke” bootleg T-shirt being sold around AT&T Park with a marijuana leaf serving as the background.

Yet, just as the Mets and Phillies antics may have overshadowed their ability, the Giants have talent and don’t let the lifestyle get in the way of the day job.

“We have some characters but what they do well is they come prepared,” manager Bruce Bochy
said. “They go out there and play hard every game. They give you everything they have and some times that is forgotten because of who they are and their personalities.”

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Much was made of Bochy sitting the ice-cold Pat Burrell
who whiffed eight times in nine WS at-bats and 19 times in 38 post-season at-bats. But using Cody Ross
in left for Burrell, putting Travis Ishikawa
at first and shifting Aubrey Huff
to the DH spot and inserting Nate Schierholtz
in right field also upgraded the Giants’ defense.

“That’s what I touched on,” Bochy said. “This is the lineup that is out there at the end of the game if we have a lead. So it does tighten up our defense.”

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Batting practice doesn’t awe many people who watch it regularly. Pitches are thrown at pedestrian speeds and hitters will try and juice a few in each round. But what Washington recently witnessed Nelson Cruz
do left an impression.

“I saw him in San Francisco almost hit the Coke bottle [in the back of the left-field seats], he has tremendous power,” Washington said of his right-handed hitting outfielder during BP prior to Game 2.

Washington said Cruz’ power isn’t limited to BP. He compared the shot Cruz hit off Renteria’s glove in Game 3 to a ball off the bat of Dave Winfield
, one of the most powerful right-handed batters in history.

“Renteria has some of the most honest hands that you ever want to see in the game and that ball went right through him,” Washington said of the smash that Renteria was charged with an error on. “One year I was playing short and Dave Winfield hit a line drive to me and I jumped up to catch it and my glove went into left field.”

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Bochy said he noticed a drop in Jonathan Sanchez
‘s velocity in the lefty’s 4 2/3-inning outing in Game 3. Yesterday, he was asked if the Giants plan to ask MLB to replace him on the WS roster even though Sanchez is on schedule to hurl Game 7 if necessary.

“Right now, no, we haven’t made any plans,” Bochy said. “[Pitching coach] Dave Righetti
and I will get together and talk about where we think Jonathan is. But right now we haven’t even discussed it.”

In order to take Sanchez off the roster the Giants would have to prove to MLB he is injured. And it’s not like they have a stud hurler waiting in the wings since the likely replacement would be Barry Zito
and he hasn’t been active for any of the postseason series.